March 06, 2013

When I began sharing my series of cards created with Just Thinking and Parker's Prints, I mentioned that I'd received two swap cards in Orlando at Leadership Conference. I'm happy to show those to you today. I do apologize for not being able to identify the individual artists. If you were the designer of either card, please leave a comment and I'll be sure to edit the post with your name and blog address. I liked both so much that I was inspired to stamp a pile of cards myself! Thank you both for sharing your talents.

March 04, 2013

No, it's still winter here in Pennsylvania, but Spring will be here soon. In the meantime, we can always "think Spring" with our stamping projects.

This is another sample stamped with Bloomin' Marvelous, one of the exclusive, limited time only Stampin' Up! stamp sets. It can be yours free with a $50 purchase of other Stampin' Up! products, but only until March 22.

The background has once again been texturized with the Vine Street embossing folder. The last two photos are a different version (on the left) and a close-up detail shot (on the right). Click on either to enlarge it.

March 01, 2013

But now that it's March 1, there's not much time left to take advantage of the year's best stamping event - Stampin' Up!'s annual Sale-a-Bration (commonly known as SAB). It ends on March 22. With every $50 you place during SAB, you can select one of many free products. Most of those are exclusive, only available for this short time. You can choose among stamps (both wood mounted and clear mount), an embossing folder, a punch, Designer Series Paper, Digital Software (My Digital Studio design CDs), a card kit, card stock, tools and embellishments (buttons, ribbon).

Here's one sample for you today, made with one of the exclusive SAB stamp sets, Bloomin' Marvelous.
It contains 8 stamps - 4 solid images and 4 sentiments in a whimsical font. Actually, the background of this card and the ribbon are also some of the SAB choices! The embossing folder used is called Vine Street, and the Tangerine Tango satin ribbon is part of the Sycamore Street Ribbon and Button Pack. With so many fabulous choices, you'll be sure to want more than just one.

So contact your local Stampin' Up! demonstrator today and place your order. If you don't currently have a demonstrator, I'd be happy to help you. Click on the Shop Now button at the upper right corner of this page, register and choose me as your demonstrator, and visit my online store. Thanks for your visit today!

February 27, 2013

When I designed all of the cards you've seen in this series, my work table was piled and cluttered with ink, paper, tools, embellishments, all sorts of creative "stuff". I realize that sometimes such clutter can be more of a distraction than an inspiration, but often come up with new ideas when bits and pieces of projects end up lying close to one another quite by accident. I also challenge myself to use up those bits and pieces while I'm creating, and I love coming up with a large variety of samples from a limited quantity of supplies.

You may be thinking "Hey, you didn't have those silver glitter brads on any of the other cards", and you'd be right. But I had received them in an order that day, and they hadn't yet found their way into their storage drawer. (Confession time: A lot of my supplies never find their way back to their rightful spots, and that is one of my weaknesses. I do need to be more tidy and organized, but I hope it doesn't hamper my creativity.)

February 25, 2013

The ladies who attended this month's Hostess Club at my home here in Hanover, PA, enjoyed making this layered, dimensional card. If you've seen the previous several posts on this blog, you'll certainly recognize the products used:

What sets this card apart is the knot instead of a bow. It's a technique I developed and taught to my stampers. It may not be unique, but I'd never seen it before. I hope you like it. The knot at the top and the tails at the bottom are actually two separate lengths of the trim, but they give the appearance of one single piece of ribbon behind the main stamped piece with just the knot showing through on top. I think I'll have to try this again with other kinds of ribbon and see how it goes.

February 22, 2013

The title of this post says it all - this card is 4.25" x 4.25, so smaller than most. And rather than using the Parker's Prints DSP that I've used in other cards in this series, I chose a neutral background (Sahara Sand) with just a simple scored border. The layer behind the stamped image is Lucky Limeade, but toned down with Soft Suede ink sponged onto the pattern embossed with the Square lattice embossing folder. This shot really shows why I selected that particular embossing folder; it echoes the pattern in the background of the Thinking of You image! How cool is that?

Very simple embellishments, too. A Cajun Craze maker colored in the circle at the top, then a pearl sets it off. A short length of beautiful lace is layered with another length of the new Natural Trim ribbon, then tied with linen thread to form a faux bow. I scored the 1/4" border using the Simply Scored Tool, then lightly sponged the edges with Soft Suede ink. I hope you like it. This turned out to be one of my favorites in the Just Thinking series I made.

February 20, 2013

Sappy title. But the card for today is blue, and the stamp is Just Thinking. (Stampin' Up!, check it out here.) It's the same blues as in the previous samples: Marina Mist and Midnight Muse. I'm loving both of those colors. This is a large card, measuring 5 1/2" square when finished.

The horizontal strip is one of the more subtle patterns in Parker's Prints DSP. Both the stamp and the Designer Series Paper are available as digital downloads for you to use in My Digital Studio, too. The embellishments used on this card make it more feminine than the other cards I made with Parker's Prints: Paper Doily, pearls, a double loop bow tied with organdy ribbon.

February 18, 2013

OK, subtle this is NOT! Parker's Prints designs are based on the Ikat weaving technique, and this card is very bold and beautiful. I think my favorite part, though, is the bow. It's a double loop bow tied with Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding. Seam binding makes such lovely bows, and even if you don't think you can tie a nice bow, I know you can. I found a wonderful video tutorial on Ann Schach's Youtube channel that demonstrates how to do this double loop bow. I made my little tool, modifying the dimensions a bit from Ann's, and then started to practice. It didn't take long at all to master it, and I love it.

The base card is Whisper White, layered with Midnight Muse. The stamped image (Just Thinking) has been embossed (Midnight Muse ink and clear embossing powder) and detailed with a Cherry Cobbler marker, then punched out with the 2 1/2" circle punch. That was then layered onto a Windows Framelit diecut from Midnight Muse c.s. embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder. Whew! It really wasn't hard to make at all - the DSP did all of the work on that background. Here's a detail photo; click on it to enlarge it.

By the way, Happy President's Day. If you're enjoying a day off from work or school today, why not spend part of it stamping a nice card, then send it to someone special. They'll be glad you did.

February 16, 2013

Hi there, stampers. Today I'm beginning a series featuring the single stamp by Stampin' Up!, Just Thinking (129940) and Designer Series Paper "Parker's Prints" (131021), both from the current Occasions Mini Catalog. This one was inspired by a card I received in a swap at Leadership Conference last month in Orlando. What a talented bunch of stampers I met there!

This is a simple, layered card with texture and pattern. Because the Parker's Patterns DSP has such bold patterns, I used narrow strips on this card. (Notice, however, that I used three different patterns side by side! Wild, crazy, right?)

Hope you'll come back next time to see another in a series of samples I used with the Parker's Prints Suite. Until then,

February 14, 2013

Do you remember cutting out red hearts from construction paper and gluing them to paper doilies to make Valentines when you were a kid? I do. And of course we begged Mom to let us put on glitter and lace, too, to make them extra special.

Well, red hearts, glitter, lace, doilies and the like are still just the perfect thing for Valentine's Day greetings for those you hold dear. And what's Valentine's Day without chocolate, right?

Here are two projects for this special day.

First, a pop-up card for my husband. The "love" is a retired stamp image, but the hearts are all current. Hearts a Flutter stamp set and framelits and a larger framelit die cut with embossed dots are set off by a "chalkboard" background. This is simple and striking. I won't show the inside - but it's full of hearts and pop-ups!

And this is a miniature Hershey chocolate bar wrapped up in its holiday best - Real Red card stock and a stamped/punched heart wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day. This was one of the projects my club members made in January, using the single stamp. The striped banner is part of the Hearts a Flutter bundle (stamp and die). The stamp (Happy Valentine Heart Single Stamp) is no longer available, so I hope you bought it while you could. The single stamps are all limited editions, so if you see one you like, click on my online store link at the right to order it right away!